Reviews with content warning for Racial slurs - Orkansäsong

Not quite sure what I learnt from this book. It kind of reminds me of that Plato quote, "only the dead have seen the end of war", because that's exactly what life is for the characters in this book: a never-ending war. Against society, against circumstances, against themselves, each one is constantly fighting a war that they know, but would never admit, they can't win.

But, as with the title, a perhaps more apt analogy would be that of a hurricane. The characters are trapped in its winds, sucked along by its currents. Perhaps they try to position themselves to go somewhere, choose something, but it looks no different to a windsock in the level of autonomy they really have.

The prose is unique in its style, used to perpetuate this hurricane feeling. Clauses are swept together, hardly room for sentence breaks, and whole events can pass in the blink of an eye, half a page, less than a sentence. It has the two-fold effect of almost forcing the reader to read at pace, but also of hastening the actions of the characters also. Everything feels rash and immediate when it happens in less than a sentence, thus showing us more how little freedom they really have, no room even for a second thought.

Ultimately there is little hope for these characters. They know little reprieve from their oppressive circumstances, and so must seek it in addiction, obsession, or whatever else they can find to stem the slow leech of life that is reality. And so by doing this they are further trapped in the hurricane, enlisted each in their own personal wars, to be finally put to rest only when they inevitably die some terrible death, as was always going to be the case.

Good book, marked down because although the level of sex, violence, gore, etc. was clearly a key part of the characterisation and story-telling, getting down to the nitty-gritty and whatnot, it still felt too gratuitous for me. Maybe I'm just a prude though idk.

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maxgdy's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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sadhabh's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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tracytho's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Very dark, very intense, relentless, written in a stream of consciousness style that works well for the subject matter and setting in a poor Mexican village ravaged by drugs, violence, and (largely) misdirected rage. Not for the faint of heart, but a compelling, powerful, yet painful read

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isarza's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

El estilo de esta autora es exactamente lo que no me gusta.
Un párrafo interminable que va de una cosa a otra y de una voz a otra, de primera persona a tercera persona, de un soliloquio a una conversación sin parar.
Por lo menos esta sí usaba comas y puntos solamente que no separaba los párrafos lo que lo hace muy abrumador para mí.

El lenguaje es sumamente soez y todo en la historia está escrito para causarte repulsión. El ambiente es desagradable, las descripciones son crudas, las escenas explícitas y los personajes repugnantes.
Muchas veces tuve que parar porque me abrumaba todo pero al mismo tiempo tenía mucha curiosidad por saber qué había pasado.
Es un reflejo de lo peor que existe en la humanidad. Es un libro de horror.

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oversherin's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Not rating this book because it is not my taste - but I respect the hell out of it.

This book is incredibly violent and dark. You get right into the mind of the characters who are deeply troubled and hateful people who are wrecked by their environment. Chapters are long dark spirals into the depths of these characters and their darkest thoughts imaginable. Despite this, Melchor is very skilled in giving them just enough humanity that I empathized with them and wanted to stick it out to the end. As other reviewers have said, this book is deeply, disturbingly, honest in a way I have never read before. To me, the hardest part of this book is that most of the characters are children who are wrapped up in the worst of the world. The run-on prose took adjustment, but I found it very natural by middle.

Overall, I thought the story was compelling and timeless. I gritted my teeth through the whole book and had to scan some chapters because I just couldn't stomach it. However, I respect this book and the stories it's telling. There is more truth to this book than I'd like to face. It definitely affected me in an artful way.

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snovella's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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ceco_'s review against another edition

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dark sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I struggled to write a review that would do this book justice. If you have the time, I recommend you read M John Harrison and Anthony Cummin's reviews (both published by the Guardian).

In short, this is a brutal book and it's not going to be for everyone. The reading experience is shocking, repulsive, but its lingering effect is profound.

A local Witch is found dead, throat slit, floating in a canal. What follows is a whirlwind exploration of life in a rural Mexican town - its constricting familial relations, sexual violence, and deadly masculinity.

Besides the 'bookending' chapters that function as an introduction and conclusion, each chapter of Hurricane Season is a different character's "retelling" of the circumstances of the murder. I use quotation marks because, truthfully, it's less of a retelling and more of a character study showcasing that person's life, motivations and anxieties, with clues to the Witch's death threaded in between, leaving the reader to piece together what happened and why certain events were interpreted in a particular way.

It's undoubtedly a challenging read, but one that will stick with me for a long time.

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